I read a LOT of accounts of thru-hikes before I stepped onto the AT for real.

So I had a lot of things to worry about long before I was called to tackle them. (And some things I didn't even know I was supposed to worry about until I was in it and my stomach was doing flip-flops!)

What a waste of time!

Everything I thought was going to kill me or that I dreaded or that I was sure I would not be able to handle were just figments. Monsters with tiny teeth that I blew out of proportion.

By the time you get to the thing that scares you, you will be ready, whether you're literally following the white blazes of the Appalachian Trail or whether you are just following the path of your life.

"They" say the Universe never gives you anything you cannot handle. I believe this to be true.

And I believe we can handle a whole lot more than we think we can.

I handled the Presidentials.

I handled setting up my tent on a platform.

Not one. Not two. But three tents on one platform at Kinsman Pond!

I handled wearing trail runners for 1,800 miles. Not the same pair.

First pair of four.

I handled Dragon's Tooth.

First time down a cliff. With tiny ledges. And rebar. In the rain. Good times.

I handled the Knife's Edge. No pictures...it was raining and I was too busy scooting along on my ass to take photos.

And I more than handled Mahoosuc Notch. In fact, it was the funnest part of the entire trail, IMHO.

~Maya Angelou

Attitude is everything and the magic happens for me when I decide to see the bright side.

I’m not a fast hiker. I don’t skim across rocks or fly down mountains (though I’m pretty good at churning up them). Maybe it’s because I’m short. Or because I fell down enough times that I’d rather be careful than have two black eyes.

I already know what that’s like.

Not pretty, but I was offered make up tips.

While U-Turn and Blue Stem could burn up some miles over varied terrain, my strength, I discovered, was in the scrambling. I'm good at the parts where arms are required—cliffs, rebar steps, boulder piles.

So is it any wonder that the Mahoosuc Notch was my favorite mile of the entire trail?

The hardest mile?

Guthooks described Mahoosuc Notch as a “deranged jumble of rocks.” They’re the size of VW buses and yurts and they’ve fallen helter-skelter into a steep-walled ravine. It’s a magical place full of luscious moss and ferns. It smells like Christmas and water gurgles invisibly under the boulder maze.

There’s no way around but through, and to get through the maze, you’ll need some upper body strength, some big-girl panties and some puzzle-solving skills.

Navigating through Mahoosuc Notch may be frustrating if you’re dedicated to hiking three miles an hour no matter what. Here’s where seeing the bright side comes in handy.

Mahoosuc Notch is known up and down the trail as the hardest mile of the Appalachian Trail.

A big part of preparing for a thru-hike and setting oneself up for success lies in getting your head right.

Once you’re prepared mentally and you’ve wrapped your head around the fact that it’s going to be tough--maybe even the hardest thing you've ever done--then you can make some choices about what you’ll do, or what you’ll carry, to vanquish misery.

I've been reading everything I can get my hands on about thru-hiking the AT.

It's interesting, but, except for one universal fear, no one really talks about their struggle with fear. It's almost like no one is afraid or has any reservations at all.

We know that can't be true, so I'm going first with my "What if?" list and five things you can do now, months before your hike, to deal with the fears that are sure to reveal themselves between now and your start date.